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Northern California Lake Fishing Report

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Sunday, August 20th, 2006

  • Ventura County
    • By

      Water Temp: unnown; felt li

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Clocked a day from 7-12 on Piru today. Good weather conditions, a bit cool in the mornings. Low fog that burned off by 8 or so. Overall, kinda of a dink fest! Ended up with 7 on ripbaits, blades, and dropshot. Largest about a pound in size. Probably better fish in deeper water.
      City: Pearblossom

      Tips: Fish topwater early right now! As the sun gets higher, the fish move deeper, so go with a ripbait or deep cranks till 9 or so. Then fish jigs, dopshot, worms, etc. in 15-30 feet of water. Samller fish in the shallows early, and better fish will be on structure out deeper.

    • By

      Water Temp: 72

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: John and I fished from 8:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and expereinced a VERY slow bite. Late in the morning I finally caught a 2 lb. 6 oz. bass on a buzz-bait but that was our only fish of size for the day. Thermocline is at 28 feet and lots of fish show up on the graph suspended at 10-12 feet. Bottom presentations got no response and crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits fished at the 10-12 foot depth yielded no strikes.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Find the schools of baitfish and go after the bass chasing them with jigging spoons.

    • By

      Water Temp: 74-75

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Tough morning. We were the first boat on the lake (the ranger didn't open the gate until 8:15!). Started with topwater just around the corner from the ramp. We had a couple of good blowups on buzzbaits but no takers. Lots of fish jumping. Switched to dropshot and caught a couple of dinks at 18-20 ft. Off the water at 11:00.
      City: San Jose

      Tips: No tips. There isn't much visible cover at this lake so we used the electronics to find offshore structure. We could see them holding at about 20 ft...getting them to bite was another story.

Saturday, August 19th, 2006

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 80

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Got on the water about 12:pm went and fished my favorite to arms and didnt get anything! off the water at 4:30
      City: Folsom

      Tips: Stay deep! throw everything at them! Fish at Night!

  • Napa County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78-81

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: We launched out of Putah Creek and worked some of the points and coves in the Putah Creek arm. My buddy hooked up with a small spot with an 8-inch green ribbon tail worm in the first half hour. We moved over to a point off a steep rocky wall, then I hooked a nice spot (almost 2 lbs) on a 4-inch green roboworm. No action for awhile then we moved to another cove and fished some weeds in 8 feet of water. My buddy hooked a fat largemouth hiding in the weeds. The fish jumped at the boat and threw the hook. It had a big fat belly on it, I would guess maybe 4 pounds. With the skiers showing up and the sun high in the sky, the action slowed for a bit. Just for kicks, we headed over to the northwest corner of the lake. I know it's August, but those weedbeds looked to good to pass up, plus we weren't getting any action anywhere else. A few casts and my buddy boated a 1 lb spot hiding in the weeds with the same huge worm he was using before. A few minutes later, I caught a similar sized spot in the weeds on a brown bitsy bug with a baby brush hog trailer. I saw him charge my jig and take it. That was fun. We had no business sight fishing shallow weedbeds in the middle of the day in August, but I'll be darned, there were some fish in there. The final tally: I boated 2, my buddy boated 2 and lost 3 at the boat, including that hawg. Pretty slow, but catching those bass in the weeds made it fun.
      City: Vacaville

      Tips: When the sun comes out, look for shady spots around submerged weeds. or around docks.

  • Santa Barbara County
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      Water Temp: ???

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: My Lowrance is back at the factory so I don't know the temps. and therefore I have only been fishing shallow. The week before I was told the bite was very tough so I just went fishing. When the fog had cleared I had 20-22 pounds for my best five. When I talked to the anglers who were prefishing for this week they had used the same bait as I but they had not enjoyed the same results. I used a Chartruse dbl. buzz that I modify a lot from stock whereas they had all used white. I had caught some smaller fish on a black one but when I changed over to the Chartruse color I had many fish inhale it in the first foot of the retrieve. Now this week the 19th. I knew of several tournaments at the same time on Saturday so I just went where no one else went. I went into big Cachuma. I did okay but not as well as the week before. I had 6 fish from 2-3 1/2pounds. The fog cleared quicker this week and then it came back half an hour later and there was a cold wind with it from 9 to 10. As the fog had come back I went to a white buzzbait but with no luck. I fished big swimbaits for the rest of the day and I did get a 6+ on a 1 ounce Cordell spot around 3:00. I went to see how my friends had all done and was shocked to hear that not one reaction bait fish had been caught. The better sticks had fished the dropoffs on the flats and points and 10 pounds was EXCELLENT and 14 and some change was in the lead. As I cannot pinpoint myself with any degree of accuracy on the main lake I could not fish those spots. The very back of Big Cachuma has a spinnerbait bite in the afternoon but why bother as those fish are very small. You'd have to go through a 100 before you might get a keeper. My buzzbait fish were sometimes shallow but my better ones this week and last week were on the deep side of the structure I was fishing with my buzzbait. To catch bigger fish just look at the birds and you'll see them offshore on the bait. That is were to begin a more sucessful pattern. I fished shallow because I had to.
      City: Santa Barbara

      Tips: I'm sure that robo oblood 6 inch worms or a jig aprox. that color would be a good start on the deeper structure from 20 to 40 feet.

  • Solano County
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      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Launched out of Paradise. Fished south disappointment without much success and then ran to the Mildred area. Got on a good topwater, plastic and VooDoo bite. Caught 30+ fish in that area up to 3 1/2 pounds. Thanks to Chris Peterson for hooking me up with the VooDoo baits, as they caught the better quality fish. I promised him I would mention the bait if I did well on it, so there you go. The key was to find the deeper tule points with some moving water. I also had good success by finding calm pockets of water and flipping the popper in there. This drew many more srtikes then with the frog.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: Pretty windy. Just had to keep the line wet and cover a lot of water. VooDoo info at www.fishinmagiciantackle.com. Good luck.

    • By

      Water Temp: 76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Basin BassMasters went out of Ladds at 6am with 11 boats. Dennie Howard and I fished together and our first stop was 14 mile slough at the mouth, Dennie using a black/red spinner bait got our first two keepers. We stayed on the main part of the river for most of the morning using everything but hand gernads. All my fish were under 13 inches, thank God for Dennis 6 lb test line with a split small split and a # 1 hook. We got our five working the outside weedline on this low tide. The winning weight was 15 + lbs with a 7.00 lb largie. Most of the boaters I spook to had the same day.
      City: rocklin

      Tips: Good luck with this one

  • Amador County
    • By

      Water Temp: 75-77

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Fished from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. caught some topwater bass in the morning to 3 lbs, then it got really slow went down to before the bridge and caguth some more topwater in the rocky areas next to nothing on worming. then at aprrox 2:25 in the afternoon the wifey hooked into a big topwater bass on the weeds just offshore 10-2. on Matzuo topwater. tough fishing all in all but that made it worth it
      City: Topaz Ca

  • Alameda County
    • By

      Water Temp: 71

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Chabot's bass fishing is red hot right now!!! My son and I rented a boat and fished the Island, Half Moon Bay, and Alder Point for 3 hours (8-11am) and caugh a dozen 1-2 lb. LM bass with the largest weighed in at 3.3 lbs. Bass is everywhere: drop-offs, points, and tullies. Go fishing at Chabot now and you'll think you're in the South. I have fished this lake for 10 years and I've never seen this kind of non-stop action.
      City: San Leandro

      Tips: Norman crankbaits, drop-shot with 5" purple roboworms, pop R, and nightcrawlers will all do!

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Took off Friday night with a good buddy for a Sat/Sun trip looking to get in on some of the hot bassin' action. I normally fish Clear Lake in the Fall and Winter, but from what the reports were saying, I knew the fishing would be solid. We started in the Red Bud arm on the west side at first light and only had 4 fish by 7:30. I had a buddy on the other side of the arm fishing the docks and he said he had fish blowing up everywhere. We shot over to where he was at and the fish were very active. Baitfish everywhere. Though top water was slow, we started throwing a Voodoo bait and a jig tight to the walls and it was on. I believe the bass were pinning the baitfish against the walls and tearing into them. After the sun got on the water we went to the Lucerne area and fished the rip rap. a buddy of mine had given me GPS coordinates from his earlier trip and the fish were doing exactly what he said they would. We did well on the drop shot, white VooDoo , jig and Lucky Craft RC white with purple back. The wind was blowing in on the shore and the more stained the water got the better the fishing was. We finished the day fishing the same wall we started on in the morning and caught another 10 fish in the last hour or so pitching a drop-shot and throwing the VooDoo. The next morning we went right to the docs in the Red Bud arm and the top water bite was solid. I started with a spook and frog and couldn't get bit in the first 10 minutes. So, I went to my confidence bait. A Splash It II in pearl with the purple back. Ended up catching topwater fish until 10:30 or so up to 5 pounds. The jig also worked well again in the same area. We continued fishing the docks and walls until the bite kinda died around 11:30. We then shot to Monitor Island and the bass were crushing baitfish deep in the tules, but we could only manage 1 fish. Finished up by 1pm.
      City: Roseville

      Tips: 1 1/2 day total of 75 fish or so up to 5 pounds. The key was fishing retaining walls and shade. Tules did not produce for us. Fish were anywhere from the shoreline to 12 feet of water. You saw me mentioning the VooDoo Bait a few times. This bait was awesome. It is like the chatterbait, but much improved. A buddy of mine gave me some to try out and man did he do a good job on them. His new premier model blows away the other blade type baits out there. White with a fluke trailer worked best. Make sure you put the trailer hook on. Many fish would have been missed without it. You can get more info on these baits at WWW.FISHINMAGICIANTACKLE.COM.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 70 isah

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Started out with jigs and darts. No contact, later on found out water did not start being drawn until I left early. Weighted senkos did not get it on, went back to darts, orange color got two 3 pounders right away. Wtaer skiers tore up the area, no more bites. Decided to call it a day because of high pressure system and lack of current.
      City: sacto

      Tips: Every dayt can be different. Get a heads up on the weather and check with water resourc3es for draw down times. No one gets thems all the time. Good luck, jimbo

Friday, August 18th, 2006

  • Shasta County
    • By

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: WOW,
      I am impressed with Walter's fishing. I know a bunch of pro's who have had their best days on Shasta with 17.79 pounds back in 2002. I have never heard of a bag that big from Shasta. I will tell you in 2002 while fishing with a buddy of mine who happens to be the pro who got the 17.79 bag I lost what would have been the biggest fish of my life right at the boat and it looked about 11-12 pounds. I caught that on a T-D minnow. But anywho Walter keep it up dude. By the way I am fishing a Tournament in Sept there you should register in it. With a bag that big you will win for sure.
      City: Roseville

Thursday, August 17th, 2006

  • Lake County
    • By

      Water Temp: mid to high sev

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: First chance to get to Clear Lake this year and fish with my good buddy Benno. Things started out quick with a great crankbait bite along a sea wall. We landed about 20 fish in an hour and a half along a 100 foot stretch of wall. All solid 2-4 pounders. Decided to give that spot a rest and moved over to Rattlesnake. Not a lot of luck so as we were leaving the area Benno mentioned a point he thought we should try. After a couple of hours of dragging drop shots across it we had another 15 fish in the water again all 2-4 pounds with the bulk in the 2 1/2 - to 3 pound range. Headed back to the wall around one and picked up another seven fish on cranks and drop shot. before having to leave at two. Best five would have been around 18-19 pounds. Not a huge sack, but what a lot of fun, especially when you get you have a good friend in the boat with you.
      City: Sonoma

      Tips: Find the baitfish, find the bass, then keep throwing at them with different baits until they start hitting. at the first spot , Benno landed four fish in four casts on a chartreuse/blue back rattletrap. I was throwing an American Shad Luckycraft CB-DR and didn't get touched. Switched to a chartreause DD-22 and hammered them as well.

    • By

      Water Temp: 78-83

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: I finished three guide trips in a row today - and today was the day!! This was the second day for two guys from the Eureka area. Yesterday we fought through a mild cold front with quite a bit of wind - but manageable. We fished many areas - as I was showing them highlights of the mid-section of the lake. Naturally, I expected the bite for larger bass to be tougher - and it was. Just before we quit - at 3 pm - I caught a 4-10, client landed a 4 1/4 and one just under 4 in 15 minutes - at 3 pm??. Nice ending to a somewhat slower day, though we landed 32 bass. Today we tackled the south end - fishing some known and some not-so-well known rock structure. We started with a few nice ones on worms and then the bass got nicer - size and attitude!! One client sticks a 5-3 and another near 5. The other fellow was feeling left out 'til he stuck a 6-2. He suddenly became very happy!! Since spinnerbaits are not my favorite things to throw - when I get an urge - I throw 'em! This was a good urge - she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and hit a white/chartreuse 3/8 oz blade - over a rock flat in 13 feet of water. My clients caught two more over 5 lbs and a 4-6. They caught 4 of our 5 fish limit of slightly over 29 lbs - nice day!! We tried to catch 30 but got stuck at 29 for the day. On Tuesday I took a dad and his 13 and 16 year old sons. We had a nice day teaching the boys some bass fishing skills and the younger one landed 5 or 6. The older boy caught a few and dad landed many. Most were 2 to 3 1/2 lbs - no big ones. Dad did very well on a chartreuse Chatterbait so I decided to try one the next day. Using a white Chatterbait - my first bass with it - my 2nd ever Clear Lake smallmouth!!! I went back to Limit Out Tackle and told Bob Higgins I demanded my money back! This isn't Almanor, har!!!
      City: Yuba City

      Tips: To sum up the three trips, most bass were quite shallow (5 to 18 feet) and the worm bite ruled! From 6 to 10 inch - they all worked! 10 inch Power worms worked in the early morning. One of my clients worked an 8" black/grape worm most of the two days - the color never stopped working. Bob Higgins told me about a "Salt River Craw" worm he carries - it was great (6")!! I used green pumpkin most of the time and it is still doing fine. Crankbaits didn't work too well, though big fish on Wed was on a Norman DD-14 - pearl white. Didn't try any topwater. I caught a few on Blade Runner spinnerbaits besides the 8-3. We were catching bass as far as 100 yards off-shore - all on rock ridges and rock flats. We ended today about 2:30 at No-Name-Reef (our second stop there) and though fishing was slow, one of the fellas did stick a near 5 pounder on his fish-catchin' black/grape worm. I must be out of those by now!! And the Chatterbait continues to chatter on, though we didn't use it today.

  • Sacramento County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78.5

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: Hit the water at 4 pm off at 9:30 pm. First time on Folsom in about a year. Slow fishing. Managed a 3 and my friend managed a 2.5 off the peninsula bushes around sunset. 2 other dinks. Fish caught on split shot 4" worm and senko. Friend had one blowup on buzz bait up the south fork.

    • By

      Water Temp: 70 ish

      Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

      Report: Tossed spook early, no takers. Wind had changed from wed. Day felt unsettled from previous day, fish knew it and changed their feeding regime. Senkos did not fall properly, went to darts and jigs on protected structure that always has fish present. Largest was 3.5 spot, rest were 2 pounders with a couple of threes.
      City: sacto

      Tips: Weather changes day to day and folsom can be a hard one. If things are not the same as the day before, go to a second game plan with conditons.
      Totally different bag today. Good fishing, jimbo

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

  • Mason County
    • By

      Water Temp: 78

      Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

      Report: Caught a lot of dinks until just before I left when I stuck a 3.9 LMB on a dropshot.
      City: Monterey

      Tips: Match the hatch.

  • Santa Clara County
    • By

      Water Temp: probably 76

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: summary is that "Hanson has got it right!: great job on your report..
      City: san jose

      Tips: My question to all... What is a fish?..A Keeper? The other thing is ...? Dink? or Keeper..? Damn hate when that happen's..My rule ,,"anything under 1 13 is a dink...remember that. If ya do, then press on.. Take care and fish safe my freind's..P.S... Watch out for the J-Skier's ..fish safe and have your floatation device's handy...Zack

  • Solano County
    • By

      Water Temp: 74+

      Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

      Report: fished with my brother caught about 40 bass best five went 15lbs. Finally got a decent frog bite since the wind picked up. Also caught them flipping senkos and lizards and cranking speed traps. stripers were busting the surface near mildred so we stopped and threw topwaters for some vicious strikes. We also saw a seal right outside of franks mauling a 15-20lb striper.
      City: el cerrito